A collaborative journey to integrated planning excellence

Background

PwC’s Consulting and Risk Services worked collaboratively with an FMCG client to deliver Phase 1 of its planning migration through the implementation of SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) Demand, S&OP, and SCCT modules.

The client, a leading FMCG manufacturer with a diverse portfolio spanning food, beverages, snacks, and home and personal care categories operates through several divisions that collectively manage over 20 manufacturing facilities and warehouses nationwide. Between 2019 and 2022, the client undertook a three‑year initiative to standardise its sales and operations planning (S&OP) processes across all divisions.

However, despite these standardisation efforts, the client recognised the need for a comprehensive planning solution that could fully support its S&OP strategy. Thus, in order to unlock the next level of efficiency and integration, they required a comprehensive planning solution capable of supporting their end-to-end strategy. The goal was to implement a single, integrated platform that would unify planning operations across all business categories and divisions.

The engagement involved a close collaboration to co-design and implement SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) using a hybrid delivery methodology that combines Waterfall structure with Agile flexibility. The project began with a SAP IBP familiarisation session to establish shared understanding of system concepts, followed by a business introduction session where the client presented their operations to familiarise our consultants with the business context.  

Collaborative Fit-Gap Design workshops then aligned business requirements with SAP IBP best practices whilst identifying custom requirements for additional development. Concurrently, our integration team collaborated with the client's data specialists to design end-to-end data integration—progressing from baseline data needs to incorporating additional fields based on custom requirements identified during the design workshops. 

Throughout the Build phase, our consultants configured the system and developed integrations according to the approved design, supported by regular playback sessions to validate progress and gather feedback. Following successful system integration testing, the client completed the user acceptance testing with hands-on guidance from our consultants.  

The project concluded with joint development of the cutover plan alongside the client's IT teams and provision of post-go-live hypercare to ensure a smooth and confident transition into SAP IBP. 

The SAP IBP implementation delivered significant measurable and strategic improvements across the client's end-to-end planning processes, with key benefits including:

• Enhanced long-term planning capabilities, which directly reduced stock obsolescence, addressing a longstanding challenge caused by limited forward visibility. 
• Advanced statistical forecasting, reducing demand bias, resulting in more accurate forecasts, and a meaningful reduction in unnecessary working capital. 
• Improved supply planning functionality, strengthened materials planning and ordering processes, helping the business avoid excessive expediting costs. 
• Service levels increased as planners gained the agility to respond to demand signals more quickly and effectively. 
• Forecast volatility decreased from the outset, whilst excessive stock projection alerts enabled more proactive, network-wide inventory management and reduced storage costs.

Strategically, SAP IBP created a centralised and standardised planning environment across the client's four operating divisions, ensuring consistent, repeatable planning cycles. This stability significantly reduced planning staff turnover, replacing a stressful manual process with a robust, well-governed platform that supports sustainable performance improvement.